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May 19, 2013

Socio-cultural Systems

By Jamshid Gharajedaghi

During the last 50 years, our worldview has gone though a profound transformation in two critical dimensions.

There has been a shift in our way of knowing from analytical thinking, the science of dealing with independent sets of variables, to systems thinking, the art, and science of handling interdependent set of variables. There has also been a fundamental shift in our understanding of the nature of social systems from a mindless mechanical system to a purposeful socio-cultural system.

Unfortunately, despite all of the rhetoric to the contrary, our newfound insights have had little influence on our choices. A dominant analytical culture, with a scientific tag, has kept reproducing the same set of non-solutions all over again. Effective use of these discriminating conceptions requires both a clear understanding of the operating principles of socio-cultural systems and unambiguous recognition of the emerging challenge of handling interdependent variables.

This paper will try only to shed some light on the latter of the two dimensions, the nature and the behavior of socio-cultural systems.